For decades, the Denver metropolitan area has suffered from a lack of competition in the market for taxicabs.

In January 2011 Colorado State Senator Ted Harvey (R- Highlands Ranch) introduced SB 11-065 to increase competition to give Colorado residents more choice over services and quality, by opening up the taxicab market to entrepreneurs intent on providing better and more complete services.

Sen. Harvey recently said (of the bill), “Colorado government needs to stop the practice of picking winners and losers in the private sector,” according to The Denver Post.

SB 11-065 is the latest attempt to loosen the grip of state regulators on the market for taxicabs and it’s important to consider similar past efforts to put SB 11-065 into context. Earlier today I posted a commentary on the recent history of taxicab regulatory reform in Colorado that is available here on Reason.org.

Harris Kenny is a state and local government policy analyst at Reason Foundation, a non-profit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.